Hydrophilic
by redyarns
Summary: Small snippets of a story in which Juvia is unobservant and fails to realize that in light of her newly formed self, two ice wizards were willing to freeze the other in a chance for her hand.


Juvia wasn't too shocked when it was declared that Lamia Scale would be temporarily moving into Fairy Tail's guildhall and its dormitories after the whole incident between Natsu and Gray duking it out so bad that they flattened a good portion of Lamia Scale's city, its guild being a part of it.

Juvia, for one, had no qualms about it, and even had expectations as to how it would go. The feelings between Lamia Scale and Fairy Tail were friendly, if not a bit competitive, so she could envision almost exactly what would happen, where it would happen, and who it would happen with. And, if she wasn't lying to herself, Juvia was a little fond of Lamia Scale as well, and was looking forward to it all.

So she waltzed over to Fairy Tail around midday Sunday, the same time that Lamia Scale members would be trickling in, and sure enough, when she opened the doors, the hall was packed and then some. She shrieked when an unconscious body was suddenly thrown at her feet, and a glimpse at the burns littering his skin told her that Natsu had been the one to hit the unfortunate man.

Sure enough, there the dragon slayer was, looking half-mad as he cackled on top of a table and threw punches left and right, either knocking people out or getting more punches in return. He looked like he was having fun, Juvia thought to himself with a smile, though Lucy looked rather frizzy as she desperately tried to convince Natsu to calm down while avoiding the flames of his fists herself.

Juvia evaded the brawl swiftly enough, but she had to throw a swift hit in when some rando tried to grope her. She screamed, covered her chest with one arm, and punched the man so hard she felt his nose crunch under her knuckles. He fell to a slump, and she sniffed in satisfaction before gracefully stepping over him and then gliding to the bar where Mirajane waited with a smile.

"Good morning," Mira said sweetly as she slid over a tall glass of orange juice without Juvia having to even ask. "Why so glum, Juvia?"

"Juvia thinks everyone fights too much," Juvia muttered, taking a sip of the oh so yummy juice before sighing and twisting on her stool to observe the scene, a small smile pulling at her lips without permission. "Especially Natsu-sama."

As if on cue, the dragon slayer let out a furious roar when one of the Lamia Scale members blatantly leered at Lucy, making the celestial wizard sneer before cracking out her whip and beating the man to a pulp before Natsu could even move. Juvia had to giggle at the besotted look in his eyes as he dreamily gazed at the enraged Lucy, who by now was so angry to the point she had joined in the fight and was using her whip on anyone who tried to even look at her breasts.

"Ah," Mira sighed, her voice cooing as she leaned over the counter and leaned her chin on her palm. "Aren't they cute?"

"They are," Juvia agreed, because they really were. Natsu seemed absolutely thrilled when Lucy finally finished with a last snap of her whip before she retracted it, blew a few blond hairs out of her eyes, then turned to the pink-haired man and smiled at him.

"Speaking of," Mira started slowly. So slowly, in fact, that Juvia didn't even notice it, too busy with finishing her orange juice and also mentally planning the groceries she said she would get for Gajeel as repayment for accidentally walking in on him and Levy that one time. (There were studs. _Everywhere._)

(What was worse was that Gajeel didn't even have the decency to cover himself up before he grinned at Juvia, said something about getting lucky, then slammed the door in her face. Some best friend he was.)

"Speaking of," Mira said again casually. "Where's Gray, Juvia?"

Oh.

That.

_Him. _

"On a job," Juvia said primly, adjusting her dress and trying not to look too put out. "With Erza."

There was silence. Then a hesitant, "and… do you know where he is?"

Juvia sniffed, took the last gulp of her orange juice, and finally started to speak, her words growing faster and faster as she kept going. "No. Juvia has spent the last week thinking, and Juvia is now sure that Lucy and everyone else is right. Juvia has been… _unhealthily,_" she paused, uncomfortable with the word but it'd been what her therapist had kindly said was the right term, "concerned about Gray-sa… Gray. Juvia thinks that she should now stop being so… _concerned _and learn to grow as her own person." She hesitated. "And Juvia doesn't want to hurt Gray-s… Gray anymore."

"Oh honey," Mira said, and her eyes were soft but her arms even softer when she reached over and pulled Juvia into a hug, cradling her head against her collarbone and the water mage reluctantly sink into the embrace, taking in the motherly scent of Mira and how her heart was beating steadily under her ear.

"Is this what you want?" Mira said quietly.

Juvia nodded, lump in her throat. Maybe it wasn't easy, but it was what she wanted to do. It was the _right _thing to do.

"Then I'll support you all the way," Mira finished, and with that, she smoothed a hand over Juvia's blue hair and hugged her for a few more seconds before pulling back and beaming at Juvia. "How about some nice pie to cheer you up? Think of it as an _I'm-so-proud-of-you _slice."

"That sounds nice," Juvia said, smiling and breathing and aching but… okay. She was okay. It was certainly better than when she had started therapy, like how her hands had been shaking violently and how Petunia merely patted her head, gave her a lollipop, and told her that the room had been encased in runes that would prevent Juvia from both leaving and using her magic. She'd been so desperate to see Gray, absolutely convinced he would die without her, or even worse, fall in love with a dreadful Love Rival.

But it was weeks later and finally, she thought to herself, she was able to walk and talk and feel okay. Mostly.

"Here you go!" Mirajane chirped, and just as promised, a perfectly baked and sliced piece of pie was set in front of her. It was truly ridiculous how beautiful it was, and for a moment Juvia contemplated asking Freed to put an everlasting rune on it because it was just _that _pretty.

But it was her proud pie as Mira had so fondly put, so Juvia picked up the fork and dug in. The sweetness of the flaky pastry was perfectly balanced with the tartness of the blueberries, and maybe it was cheesy of her to say so (then again, she always said over-the-top things), but it was like Mira's big sisterly love was baked right in.

Juvia hummed in delight, savoring every bite and also the satisfying feel of Mira's pride and support.

Just as she was about to take her fourth bite, the doors slammed open, and Juvia's Gray Senses (which weren't going away no matter how she tried - oops) were tingling so hard that she had to force herself to keep shoveling pie in her mouth and stare with determination at the hardwood counter.

"I'm home!"

"Welcome back, Gray!"

"Wait, _he's _Gray?"

"He's hotter than I thought he'd be…"

In all fairness, her plan did work. For about five seconds.

But it wasn't her fault, she swears it!

She'd just been calming down, all ready to eat the last bits of her pie and hop off the stool to go grocery shopping, only several things happened that completely ruined it all.

There was a shout, specifically from Natsu, who screamed, "PUT ON SOME CLOTHES YOU FUCKER!"

There was a blast of something both hot and cold against Juvia's back, and suddenly an arm shoved at the back of her head, startling her enough and catching her so off guard that her neck followed and soon there she was, face squished against the fine china plate and her skin feeling decidedly unpleasant.

The guild was silent when Juvia slowly sat up again, bits of pie falling off and splattering onto her equally ruined dress. She blinked, a piece of blueberry clinging stubbornly to her eyelash.

"J… Juvia," a voice said awkwardly, and Juvia turned stiffly to see Gray standing behind her with an awkward expression along with slight panic in his eyes as he said, "I, uh, I didn't mean to, I swear, that stupid flame brain hit me and - "

"Juvia wants to go home," she said robotically, and when Mira handed her a napkin, she politely thanked the other girl before wiping off a good portion of the pie from her face.

"Uh - "

"Juvia," she said more forcefully, and she realized that for the first time, she was angry. She was angry at Gray. Her first instinct was to want to punch herself for even daring to think her Gray was anything less than perfect - but another voice, this one strongly sounding like Petunia, merely scoffed and said he ruined probably her whole dress and face, plus that delicious proud pie. "Wants to _go home._"

At this last word, she stood up, glared at him, and shoved the thoroughly pie-soaked napkin onto Gray's chest, satisfied when the thing made a grotesque noise and stuck to his skin, now dying the smooth surface a dark blue.

Juvia huffed, flicked a piece of pastry off of her nose, and marched away to the doors with her head held high. _Ooooh! _That… that… _inconsiderate _man! Did he not realize that brawling all day wasn't going to do anything to help the miniscule amount of brain cells he had rattling around in his head.

Juvia sniffed. No one ever said she was in love with him for his brains, but still.

Honestly - _men. _

"Juvia-chan! Wait!"

By this point, Juvia was absolutely not in the mood to entertain anyone. In fact, all she wanted to do was stalk back home, take a shower, redo her makeup and pull on new clothes, and go to the market and hardware shop so she could get Gajeel his meals for the week.

So it was no surprise, really, that she whirled around, bits of blueberry flying off of her and splattering onto her irritating peanut alley, her magic causing her hair to rise dangerously while she hissed, "what?"

Oh.

She felt a little embarrassed when she realized it was Lyon - for one, she'd spotted him chatting amicably with Wendy in the corner, so she couldn't blame him for her foul mood that came from such unnecessary brawling. Secondly, she now realized he was looking sheepishly at her while his hand reached out to give her a towel.

"T… Thank you," Juvia stuttered, feeling embarrassed for both her temper and the fact that she looked like an absolute disaster while Lyon looked - well - he looked - good. Really good.

(Ugh. It was unfair that she was surrounded by so many beautiful people - Gray, Lucy, Erza, Lyon, even Natsu! Woe is her, her poor heart could barely take it.)

(_Especially _when one of those aforementioned too-good-looking people was smiling at her so shyly.)

"I'm sorry for Gray's idiocy," Lyon said gently, not minding when she handed back the towel dyed blue and a little slimy with blueberry chunks. In fact, he absolutely beamed at her, both of them ignoring Gray's indignant shout. "Ur dropped him on his head a few too many times."

"It's okay," Juvia said softly, feeling her anger melt away and instead a tiredness seeping into her. She wanted to grovel at Gray's feet, to beg him for forgiveness, but Lyon was smiling at her and blocking her view of Gray so instead she stayed. "Juvia… Juvia should not have gotten so mad."

"Why don't you go home and wash up," Lyon suggested.

"Yes," Juvia smiled, opening the doors. "Juvia will. Have a good day, Lyon-sama."

"You as well," he said, and the doors closed behind her.

She slumped against them, sighed, and rubbed at her temples. First her resolve to leave Gray alone had almost been broken, and now Lyon was here! To be honest, she'd kind of forgotten about him, her mind too preoccupied by her therapy lessons and also her new hobby of crocheting, since Petunia said it would help her focus her energy onto something else.

Still, she couldn't say it wasn't good to see him. Seeing such a gentle personality when all morning she'd been surrounded by shouts had been more calming than she'd anticipated. She was, dare she say it, happy to see him. A few weeks ago this would have been pure blasphemy in her mind, after all she had done nothing but yell at Gray and ignore him in favor of Lyon's attention, but there was nothing wrong with it!

At least, she was pretty sure.

She could hear the noise pick up again from behind the closed doors, and she shook her head while scolding herself for being silly. See? Nothing happened. In fact, Gray probably didn't even notice, for as smart as he could be sometimes (pie incident notwithstanding), he often had a one-track mind when it came to Natsu and fighting.

Stretching, she dusted off her dress of some bits of wood that came from Natsu's destruction of the (newly purchased) tables, and she wandered back home.

**XxXxXxXxXxX**

**These are just short stories, as in they won't be very long. They'll still be in chronological order, but this is more of a side story than anything, so I'll update when I can. **

**Follow me on tumblr where my handle is redyarns. **


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